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Installation Instructions - MintPPC

The document provides instructions for installing MintPPC, an operating system based on Debian for PowerPC machines. It details downloading the installer image, creating partitions, running the automated install, configuring sound, and tweaking the system to Linux Mint.

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Pedro Iniesta Llinares
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© © All Rights Reserved
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84 views

Installation Instructions - MintPPC

The document provides instructions for installing MintPPC, an operating system based on Debian for PowerPC machines. It details downloading the installer image, creating partitions, running the automated install, configuring sound, and tweaking the system to Linux Mint.

Uploaded by

Pedro Iniesta Llinares
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Installation instructions

Let’s get started with installing MintPPC.

For people who would like to use the live MintPPC USB for trying out MintPPC or
who would like to install MintPPC with the live USB, I refer to this page.

The usual way of installing MintPPC is done with “Debian-installer” using the net
installer (most packages are taken from the internet during installation). This page is
dedicated to install MintPPC in this way.

You have to take into account that you are going to try to install a working MintPPC
system with a LXDE desktop from the internet, package by package. You run the risk
that some packages on the Debian server are in a broken state. If that is the case, your
installation of MintPPC will fail. I did everything I can to ensure that all Mint related
packages install properly. If your installation of MintPPC using the netinstaller fails,
you can opt for the installation with the live USB image.

We first download the Debian installer images that I know are working at the
following links:

32-bits Debian (G3, G4)


debian-10.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso

64-bits Debian (G5)


debian-10.0-ppc64-NETINST-1.iso

The image can be burned onto a CD-R. I refer to the internet how to burn CD’s.

Make sure it’s a CD-R, not CD+R or CD-RW or any kind of DVD. I’ve got a couple
of older machines that have trouble with anything but pure and simple CD-R (and
won’t even recognise DVDs!)

Flashing USB sticks is quite easy under OSX or Linux with the following command:
dd if=/path/to/debian.iso of=/dev/sdx
(x being a number).
Please consult the internet if you want more information on this subject.
Before you continue, make sure that your computer is connected to a stable fast
internet connection with an ethernet cable. If the downloading of a package fails
during installation, you will have to start the whole thing again.

We then have to boot into the CDROM or the USB. For booting CD’s, you normally
hold down the ‘c’ key after the boot chime.

Another way to boot the CDROM is using open firmware. To do this, hold down the
“Command,” “Option,” “O” and “F” keys simultaneously as the computer boots, and
then at the 0 > prompt, type

boot cd:,\boot\grub\powerpc.elf

and then press Return/Enter.

Booting from USB is done from open firmware by the following command:

boot ud:,\\grub.elf

You will see the Debian installation menu and then select the second option:
Automated install

The preseed file can be found at the following addresses (note: it is web zero zero
nine three):

for 32-bits (G3, G4):


http://u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/d-i/mintppc32/preseed.cfg

for 64-bits (G5):


http://u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/d-i/mintppc64/preseed.cfg

The first thing you need to do is to partition the drive you are going to install
MintPPC onto.

I use the following setup, which I created manually but you can also let the
partitioner do the job for you automatically:
#1 32.3 kB Apple driver partition
#2 128MB B (flag) boot bootstrap
#3 1.0 GB swap swap swap
#4 39.0 GB ext4 Linux /
It’s important to leave the Apple driver partition from an old Apple OS installation.
Create an 128 Mb bootstrap partition for GRUB and create swap space at least the
size of your RAM. The fourth partition we will format in ext4 and will give it the /
(root) mountpoint.

After the partitions are made, the installer will install MintPPC automatically.

Then boot into freshly installed MintPPC.


At the display manager (login screen) use your username and password and select
‘Mint-LXDE’ as session.

To get sound working install alsa-utils and launch alsamixer

sudo apt install alsa-utils


alsamixer

Then hit fn+F6 (SoundByLayout)


go to the right and make sure you have PCM at 80<>80
ESC to exit alsamixer

You should have sound now…

To tweak Debian to Linux Mint Debian, install debian-system-adjustments:

sudo apt install debian-system-adjustments

Make sure you also edit /etc/apt/sources.list and remove or add an # in front of the
deb-src entry for Debian, as there is none in Debian-ports.

That’s it folks. Enjoy your MintPPC desktop!

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